NouXtreme

Ever since the ‘Bodom trail’ race in May and obviously the Swissaline my interest in trail runs has increased and besides, it’s a great way to improve the running skills due to the challenging terrain. Thus, i did not hesitate to register for the Nouxtreme race in Solvalla (right next to Nuuksio national park). The race included both 10K and 20K routes, however, the 20K simply involves two loops of the 10K route. I initially registered for the 20K race, however, since i had pretty extensive training sessions in that week i felt quite exhausted so i decided finally to go only for the 10K especially since i don’t like races which include several loops of the same trail …

Luckily, it turned out to be a very wise decision….

First, it enables me to go for a long bike ride the day before (see the post on the ride to Inkoo) which i enjoyed so much..but more importantly, i don’t think i would have survived the 20K…:)

Since i was so tired the day before i woke up quite late and realized i won’t make it with the public transport (i’d have to take 3 buses) so i decided to cycle…this turned out to be quite a big mistake since i took the ‘specialized bike’ which is not easy to cycle with in the steep hills of the road leading to Nuuksio…so after 27km (which took me about 1.5 hours) i finally arrived to the starting point all sweaty and gasping….

I went to collect my bib number and i was quite surprised to know that there are no timing chip but rather automatic timing based on the electronic board. Anyway, i collected my number and went to the changing room..i realized than that since i was in such a hurry i brought my hydration pack but forgot the bladder at home…then again, luckily i registered for the 10K…:). Anyway, i changed my clothes and took one gel before the start (i was so exhausted from the cycling i knew i would be so tired if i hadn’t taken it..) and took only my iPod as my running companion:).

Photos credit : Nouxtreme Facebok page

There were about 80-100 people participating in the race and luckily it was not raining but the soil was wet due to the heavy rains in the previous days. As soon as the race started , after about 500m i realized this is nothing like the Bodom trail nor the Swissalpine….

First, the trail passes through unmarked path which makes it very difficult to follow…In fact, despite the fact the organizers marked it with an orange ribbon i managed to get lost not less than 3 times!! Luckily, i was not the only one who got lost so i followed the other runners who found the correct path..Ironically, i even managed to lose my way about 300m from the finish line….:)

The other thing is the terrain: as i mentioned, it was unmarked trail and the soil was wet, so not only i stamped into swamps so many times that i had to run the whole trail with wet feet (we also had to cross a small river, so i guess anyway my feet would get wet at some point) , the ground was full of tree branches and trunks, so i fell on the ground during running two times..while the second time was quite horrible as most of the impact went towards my knees…i’m not sure how, but i immediately got up and continued running despite the pain in my knees which were also bleeding..

On the bright side, there were not too many steep elevation (except one hill towards the end of the trail) so the only challenge was actually the terrain itself…

Another funny thing which happened is related to my running watch…I downloaded the route from the Garmin Basecamp app and saved it as a track in my Garmin. However, during the run, the watch displays the remaining distance and not the accumulative one. I’m not sure why but in the middle of the run , the distance started to increase instead of decrease….luckily , the activity was recorded properly and it was just the display that was wrong..but still that was quite annoying..

Anyway, words cannot describe how happy i was to reach the finish line…only after the run i realized i could barely walk due the fall…so i was happy but limping to the changing room even though my time was quite slow ( 1.16.15, 14th position among women)

I was so afraid i wouldn’t be able to cycle back..it was indeed not easy but at least the the beautiful autumn colours made it all worthwhile and this time i even could take some pics as i was not in a hurry..:)

Near Nuuksio National Park

Beuatiful Ruska colours in Leppävaara